The Business of HockeyDiscuss the financial and business aspects of the NHL. Topics may include the CBA, work stoppages, broadcast contracts, franchise sales, expansion and relocation, and NHL revenues.

For five consecutive seasons, the NBA regular season on broadcast (ABC) has outdrawn the MLB regular season on broadcast (FOX). In 2012, the NBA regular season on ABC nearly doubled the MLB regular season on FOX (3.3 to 1.7), the largest percentage gap between the two leagues since 1997

For five consecutive seasons, the NBA regular season on broadcast (ABC) has outdrawn the MLB regular season on broadcast (FOX). In 2012, the NBA regular season on ABC nearly doubled the MLB regular season on FOX (3.3 to 1.7), the largest percentage gap between the two leagues since 1997

forget mlb losing to nba.. what about mlb barely beating NHL? mlb is 1.7 and i'm pretty sure nhl on nbc this yr is averaging about 1.2, no?? so does that mean nhl is next to beat mlb?? if this ever happens, i'll freak out.. i never thought in a million yrs nhl would ever get this close to mlb.

what i find simply amazing is that i know how big the bulls are in chicago and i know how huuuuuge the cubs are in chicago and even the whitesox who won the world series a few yrs ago are also pretty big in chicago.. however, a canadian sport that the blackhawks play called hockey has more viewers than all those 3 chicago sports teams combined (or close to it).. it just goes to show you how important it is in the ratings when you have a winning team. fans love to see their teams win..

I am sorry if it's been said before but do we have Canadian TV numbers for NHL ratings for 2013 so far?

omg, i actually never thought of it because i only cared about US ratings.. but damn, it would be interesting to see which canadian team gets best local ratings. i doubt it's available. they might just do CBC.. i wonder which team gets best local ratings.. winnipeg, calgary, edmonton, van, mtl, tor???? i would bet it's montreal.. or maybe vancouver... man, i swear, i'd pay a lot to see this..i am shocked i never thought of seeing this..

if someone can post this, you'd be a hero.

oh and btw, i guess we'll never know what the hawks tv ratings were when they broke the record or even vs columbus. i doubt it was any good or else we would have seen it. oh well, maybe it's better i don't see it cause i have a feeling it would have made me depressed after i saw a 4.3.

While ratings for NHL games on the NBC Sports Network remain pretty microscopic, the cable channel made a smart move this season in programming Wednesday night games as a Wednesday Night Rivalry -- with match-ups involving traditional rivals. In just five weeks this season, those rivalries have produced four of the five highest-rated regular-season NHL cable TV games in seven years of coverage on NBCSN and its predecessors Versus and OLN.

what i find simply amazing is that i know how big the bulls are in chicago and i know how huuuuuge the cubs are in chicago and even the whitesox who won the world series a few yrs ago are also pretty big in chicago.. however, a canadian sport that the blackhawks play called hockey has more viewers than all those 3 chicago sports teams combined (or close to it).. it just goes to show you how important it is in the ratings when you have a winning team. fans love to see their teams win..

GO HAWKS

Its the best sports city in the country, hands down. Not just professional either, but college. NYC, Boston and Philly dont follow college like Chicago does, let alone the big 4.

You can't understand MLB's TV situation if you ignore the local cable deals. Just looking at the national broadcasts is an apples and oranges comparison.

Didn't the Dodgers just sign a $7B/25 year local cable deal in LA? I think the Lakers only got $3B for 20 years. Amazing that the Dodgers, who haven't won a pennant in 25 years, get almost 2x as much local revenue as the perennial NBA superpower Lakers.

Comparing the 0.5 rating for the NCAA game and the 1.2 rating for the NBA game to the 1.0-1.3 avg the NHL usually gets on NBC for reg season games, the NHL isn't in that bad of shape.

I blame the microscopic ratings on the network's availability. It's only in like 77-80 million homes compared to ESPN's 100 million.

The ratings aren't microscopic at all. There was no reason to describe them as such. The cable ratings are absolutely fantastic. Through the roof, even. The broadcast ratings are very small, but the NHL is doing amazing on cable.

Its the best sports city in the country, hands down. Not just professional either, but college. NYC, Boston and Philly dont follow college like Chicago does, let alone the big 4.

Let's not kid ourselves here. Chicago is a bandwagon city, outside of the Bears. And college is only a kind of big deal because so many Big Ten grads move here and because nearly every Catholic and/or Irish kid grows up loving notre dame. It's not really a college sports town at all.

And before someone comes in and says it's not a bandwagon town because the Cubs always draw, realize that people are going to have fun at the park and not so much watch the team, and that studies have found that 40% of Cubs tickets are sold to out of staters. But TV ratings for all teams except the Bears scream bandwagon town.

You can't understand MLB's TV situation if you ignore the local cable deals. Just looking at the national broadcasts is an apples and oranges comparison.

Didn't the Dodgers just sign a $7B/25 year local cable deal in LA? I think the Lakers only got $3B for 20 years. Amazing that the Dodgers, who haven't won a pennant in 25 years, get almost 2x as much local revenue as the perennial NBA superpower Lakers.

Exactly. The NBA is all about people following the league and the star players, but not watching their own team because well over 75% of teams are absolute garbage and will never win a thing.

Baseball is as strong as ever. Sure, people don't watch the playoffs. Can you blame them? They've been watching baseball daily for 6 months, it's easy to be burned out by the time your team is out.

MLB was ahead of the NBA in every shared market except LA (Lakers), Cleveland (LeBron), and DC(*) (well, the Nats just basically sucked) - in most markets significantly ahead.

(*) If you include the Orioles broadcast on the same RSN, they blow away the NBA.

Can we get numbers from less than three years ago? These are extremely out of date. We were just talking a couple pages ago about the Pens having the highest local ratings of any NHL, NBA, or MLB team.

Can we get numbers from less than three years ago? These are extremely out of date. We were just talking a couple pages ago about the Pens having the highest local ratings of any NHL, NBA, or MLB team.

Let's not kid ourselves here. Chicago is a bandwagon city, outside of the Bears. And college is only a kind of big deal because so many Big Ten grads move here and because nearly every Catholic and/or Irish kid grows up loving notre dame. It's not really a college sports town at all.

And before someone comes in and says it's not a bandwagon town because the Cubs always draw, realize that people are going to have fun at the park and not so much watch the team, and that studies have found that 40% of Cubs tickets are sold to out of staters. But TV ratings for all teams except the Bears scream bandwagon town.

Baseball was gaining great attendance from majority of the smaller markets, but because of MLB's structure as soon as Boston and Yankees start buying their (small market) best players the attendance will drop like it did in 2011-2012 around 1-2%. Probably will rise back in the big markets, but what I am trying to state here is at best case MLB is plateauing and not gaining yougner fans as the other sports have, they're rich because of that TV deal.

Baseball was gaining great attendance from majority of the smaller markets, but because of MLB's structure as soon as Boston and Yankees start buying their (small market) best players the attendance will drop like it did in 2011-2012 around 1-2%. Probably will rise back in the big markets, but what I am trying to state here is at best case MLB is plateauing and not gaining yougner fans as the other sports have, they're rich because of that TV deal.

I love baseball.. I really do.. but there is nothing more boring for everyone involved than youth games right after the kids start pitching. Walk, walk, hit by pitch, walk... I dont think we every finished a game before it was too dark.

Baseball is declining as a sport, and has been for a long time. Outside of a few markets (NYC, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis), baseball is nowhere near the major sport it once was.

And I say this is as someone who likes baseball.

The topic sometimes comes up here whether soccer/MLS is ever going to overtake hockey/NHL in popularity. I think that's the wrong question - soccer may overtake baseball instead. Both sports are outdoor summer sports, so they more directly compete with each other for fans more than either compete with hockey. And more over, TV ratings and youth participation are rising for both hockey and soccer, which they are in a long term decline for baseball.